BOOK REVIEW - Katya’s World
Geek Syndicate
mankind’s history. RIC-23 has the right atmosphere, gravity, and is rich in minerals. Unfortunately it is a water world, with not a square foot of land above sea level. A colony is formed of ethnic Russians, and the world named after a type of beautiful mysterious mermaid from Russian mythology, Russalka. The colonists settle, creating their homes in submarine mountains and ridges, carved with the high tech tools brought from Earth and in floating platforms on their new world’s the stormy seas. Then they eagerly wait for the next deliveries of technology, people and supplies… which do not arrive, or for word via Faster than Light communications, which remain silent from Earth, while scattered colonies remain in touch. So the Russalkins make the world their own, developing their own technologies and equipment, with the aim of eventually reaching for the stars, to other colonies in order to trade for those vital components that they cannot provide for themselves. In this process, the colonists divide into two groups: those who remain under the sea and those who live upon and maintain floating platforms that allow them to reach again for the stars. Those above become the Yagizban, living in their own enclaves and both groups followed their own agendas for several generations. It transpires that the Earth hasn’t forgotten them. Indeed, the powers that be there
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soon she will encounter pirates and war criminals, see death and tragedy at first hand, and realise that her world’s future lies on the narrowest of knife edges. For in the crushing depths lies a sleeping monster, an abomination of unknown origin, and when it wakes, it will seek out and kill every single person on the planet.
The Review:
There are some books for which you don’t need background information. Others don’t make sense without it. In Katya’s World by Jonathan L. Howard, the author articulately disseminates what the reader requires to enjoy the book in a few short pages, without which they would probably flounder. Geek Syndicate dives into the latest offering from Strange Chemistry, Angry Robot’s global imprint dedicated to the best in modern young adult science fiction, fantasy and everything in between. Mankind has reached for the stars and found other worlds. Many of those worlds will only marginally support humans, but the Earth’s environment has become so degraded, that most of these worlds offer more support than humanity’s home world does. So the stars are settled by mass immigration, colonies created from single ethnic groups, to prevent any possible future atrocities should anything go wrong and the minorities blamed for a disaster as had happened so many times in
Author: Jonathan L Howard Publisher: Angry Robot (Strange Chemistry Imprint)
The Blurb:
The distant and unloved colony
world of Russalka has no land, only the raging sea. No clear skies, only the endless storm clouds. Beneath the waves, the people live in pressurised environments and take what they need from the boundless ocean. It is a hard life, but it is theirs and they fought a war against Earth to protect it. But wars leave wounds that never quite heal, and secrets that never quite lie silent. Katya Kuriakova doesn’t care much about ancient history like that, though. She is making her first submarine voyage as crew; the first nice, simple journey of what she expects to be a nice, simple career. There is nothing nice and simple about the deep black waters of Russalka, however;